Record number of teens nominated for Oxfordshire Youth Awards

A RECORD number of nominations have been made for the Oxfordshire Youth Awards which take place next month.

More than 200 nominations have been sent in for the awards, run by the Oxfordshire Association for Young People (OAYP) to honour the achievements of young people.

Paul Lawrence, chief executive of OYAP, said: “It is amazing that so many people in the community came forward with nominations for the young people.

“We were well into double figures for each of the awards.

“That’s tremendous and in total it is double the number of entries that we had last year.

“This gives us a bit of a logistical problem on the night but it is a good problem to have.”

There are seven category awards up for grabs at the ceremony at Oxford Town Hall on February 21 – covering art, bravery, literary achievements, enterprise, sport, volunteering, and science, technology and environment, along with the Jake Spicer Special Recognition Award.

The Jake Spicer award is for the overall winner on the night and is in memory of the former pupil of St Gregory the Great School, East Oxford, who died in 2009 after a five-and-a-half year battle with a rare form of bone cancer. After he was diagnosed, Jake raised thousands of pounds for charity.

This year for the first time, a youth committee has a pivotal role in organising the awards.

Ten Wheatley Park School students, aged between 15 and 17, make up the committee organising the event.

They were chosen because they had demonstrated the necessary leadership skills to be able to co-ordinate the awards.

Their work includes organising fundraising, sponsorship, budget management and event planning.

The students applied for a grant from the Positive Activities Fund, run by the youth engagement and opportunities team at Oxfordshire County Council, to pay for decorating the town hall on the night.

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